Discovery
by SnowStar15
Summary: Hey everybody sry for lack of update! I messed the story Dark Secrets up so i changed the name to discovery. the second chapter is called ashley's secret. it's the same thing as dark secrets. R
1. Default Chapter

"Finally, a sunny day in New York!" Munch said as he entered work. He slammed his briefcase down on the desk and started to sip his coffee.  
  
"Not for long. The weather reports say severe thunderstorms for all of tomorrow and the rest of the week. By the way, Detective, you are late." Captain Cragen came out of his office and over to Munch's desk. "Fin already is waiting outside for you."  
  
"Sorry." Munch threw on his coat.  
  
"Don't be sorry. Be punctual." Cragen said, checking his watch.  
  
Munch was on his way down the stairs when a college girl came into the precinct. She looked very upset. "Excuse me?"  
  
"Yes?" Munch asked her.  
  
"There is a black trash bag sitting on the bench in the park. And there is a dead body in it."  
  
.  
"Okay everyone, step aside. Coming through." The SVU had arrived and was going to open the bag. Olivia Benson was putting on the gloves. "Are you sure that there is a body in here?"  
  
"That's what the girl said." Munch pulled the bag open. "Oh my god. There is a dead body in here. But the baby is the size of my hand."  
  
"It's a baby?" Detective Elliot Stabler asked, looking just as surprised as everyone. Everyone watched as Munch excavated the small body from the bag.  
  
"I haven't ever seen a baby that small." Olivia said. Elliot and Fin nodded.  
  
"Looks like the mother had some problems." Fin said.  
  
"Did you track her down?" Munch asked.  
  
"No, we still have to check the hospital records." Elliot rolled his eyes. "Fun, fun, fun."  
  
"Part of the job. Look for anyone who still-birthed or delivered premature. She looks about six or seven months early." Munch held the tiny, tiny corpse in his hands.  
  
"I didn't think it was possible to deliver that early." Olivia said as she pulled off her gloves and climbed into the car she and Elliot shared.  
  
"Yeah it's really odd. I wonder who the mother is." Elliot said. He was thinking about his children.  
  
"I don't know."  
  
At the hospital, Olivia and Elliot were going through all the OB files. "Sometimes I wonder how I got into this job." Elliot commented, going through another file. Olivia snapped another closed and opened another.  
  
"Hey, Elliot, I think we may have something here. The baby belongs to Ashley Mansfield. 14 at the time of the baby's delivery." Olivia read from a file. She delivered a baby girl 7 months premature. The baby died four hours after she was born. And the chart says she goes to Wellington High School."  
  
"Well what are we waiting for?" Elliot asked. He pulled on his coat. Pulling his cell phone from his belt, Elliot dialed Captain Cragen. "Captain? It's Stabler. We think we may have and ID on that premature baby found in the park. A 14 year old named Ashley Mansfield. Goes to Wellington High School." Elliot listened on his phone for a few minutes. "Yeah, we're gonna go talk to her. Okay, we'll tell you how it goes. Sure thing. Bye."  
  
Wellington High School  
  
"Ashley, cradle the ball! No, not that way! Don't score yet! You're halfway across the field! Christy, check her! Ashley, run! Where is your head today?" The coach's voice hollering to the running girls on the lacrosse field. Olivia and Elliot stepped onto the grassy field.  
  
"You think that's our Ashley?" Elliot asked.  
  
"I don't know, you tell me." Olivia was carefully picking her way through the damp grass. "Shit. These are brand new shoes."  
  
"That's why you don't wear new shoes to work." Elliot said. "If that's our Ashley Mansfield, she sure seems distracted."  
  
Elliot stepped over to the coach, a tall man with thinning gray hair. "Excuse me, sir. I'm Detective Stabler; this is my partner Detective Benson. Do you have Ashley Mansfield on the field right now?"  
  
"Yeah, she's been playing like shit lately. ASHLEY! Get over here right now!" The coach turned to Elliot. "She's been distracted lately."  
  
A short, petite blonde girl holding an expensive lacrosse stick came over to the detectives. She had blue eyes with dark circles underneath them and they were red-rimmed. She looked upset and was very pale. Something wasn't right with her.  
.  
  
Ashley's POV: I saw the SVU detectives and my heart slid to my feet. They were talking to the coach and Mrs. Brooks, our assistant. I felt the other girls' eyes on me as I walked to them.  
  
"Ashley, these are Detectives Benson and Stabler to talk to you. Remember to wear your uniform tomorrow because we have a game!" The coach hollered after her as I walked away with and the detectives.  
  
"Let's go sit down, Ashley." Detective Stabler led me over to a set of silver bleachers. I pulled my mouth guard from my mouth and bit down on it hard. The female detective sat first.  
  
"Ashley, I'm Olivia. We were wondering if you could tell us anything about a seven-month premature baby that was found in a trash bag on a bench in a park. The baby matched the description of your baby that you delivered last month."  
  
I grew tense. I bit down on the mouth guard and I bit it through. "I never had a baby." I felt like I was going to be sick. I pulled my legs up to my chest. No way on the face of the earth was I going to tell these detectives about what had happened.  
  
"We saw the file on you in the hospital." Detective Stabler said. I looked at my shoes. My face was growing red. My cheeks were hot.  
  
"I'm not the only Mansfield in New York."  
  
I felt relieved when my best friend Dana came over to me. "Ash, we need to get to cheerleading practice." Dana eyed Olivia and Detective Stabler.  
  
"Okay, I'm coming. Do you know if we're learning anything new for nationals this year?" I asked. But before I left, I turned around. They were still watching me.  
. "Well, did you figure anything out?" Munch asked Olivia and Elliot. He was paging through Ashley's hospital file.  
  
"No. She was real defensive. Tense, choking back tears. Her friend came over and took her to cheerleading practice." Elliot said. "What about you?"  
  
"Well we met her boyfriend Justin. He says Ashley has been distracted lately and fearful of men."  
  
"Well, I think we should talk to Ashley. You have her address?" 


	2. Ashley's Secret

Home of Ashley Mansfield  
  
"Come in." Ashley was standing at the door. It was 75 degrees outside, but Ashley was dressed in a "NYC Magic All Starz Cheerleading sweatshirt and warm, gray track pants. She wore her blonde hair down and it reached below her shoulder blades.  
  
"Do you want a drink or anything?" Ashley was pallid white and looked famished. She looked ready to keel over any minute.  
  
"No thanks, but when was the last time you ate?" Olivia asked her.  
  
"This morning." Ashley said softly. Olivia and Elliot didn't believe her. Once inside the Mansfields' mansion, Olivia noticed all the photographs of Ashley on the walls. There were pictures of Ashley playing sports and cheerleading. A picture of a blonde girl in a blue and silver velvet gymnastics suit was backwards in the air, hands on the balance beam.  
  
"Is that you?" Olivia asked her. Ashley nodded. "Yeah, it is."  
  
The place was immaculate. Hard wood floors and crystal chandeliers; china cabinets; a grand piano, a harp, and a huge swirling staircase that led upstairs with large white doors that were all shut.  
  
"Wow, they're obviously not short on cash." Olivia murmured to Elliot.  
  
"So what's happening today?" Ashley asked. She had obviously been crying. Tissue boxes were at her feet and her eyes were rimmed with red and dark circles.  
  
"Sweetie, we need to ask you more questions." Olivia and Elliot sat down on the beige sofa across from Ashley.  
  
Ashley looked very tiny sitting on the sofa. Her legs were curled up underneath her. She looked exhausted and emaciated.  
  
"Ashley, we met your boyfriend, Justin."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"He says you're distracted lately," Elliot said. "Why not tell us why."  
. Ashley's POV: I could tell the detectives were really worried. I knew I looked like hell. Detective Stabler was trying to be nice, but he didn't get it. Olivia, the other detective, (she had told me her name and said I could call her that) was somewhat getting it. Detective Stabler leaned forward. I shied away.  
  
Elliot's POV: When Ashley shied away, I remembered Fin saying, ".she's been fearful of men lately." A thought flashed through my mind that I couldn't stop. Ashley, something wasn't right with her.  
  
Ashley's POV: A look crossed Detective Stabler's face. He knew what I was hiding. He handed me a file. "Read that. Sound familiar?"  
  
It was a file on my stay in the hospital. "Ashley Mansfield. 4 months pregnant, delivery of a baby girl, Layla, at 12:31 AM on February 14, 2003. Due to complications, Layla died ten minutes after her birth."  
  
"Was Layla you daughter?" Olivia asked me.  
  
"Ashley, we did DNA tests using your DNA and Layla's. It was a match. Why did you dig up your baby's grave and put her in a trash bag on a bench?" Detective Stabler asked me, trying not to lose his temper.  
  
"It's not like that. That's not true." I said, close to tears. Olivia gave Elliot a harsh look and said to me gently, "Its okay, Ashley, just tell us what happened."  
  
I inhaled sharply. I better just tell them the truth. "It happened at the 2002 Lacrosse finals, in October. They ran late this year. I was in the top 50 teams that made the first cut, at the Wide World of Sports in Florida. Actually, the people at the All Star Resort planned this big party for all the teams who were moving on. That's when I made the biggest mistake of my life." I stopped for a few minutes.  
  
"Are you okay?" Olivia asked me. I nodded.  
  
"I started to hit it off with Matthew Greene. He was really nice, good at lacrosse, had a girlfriend, lived in Rockaway, and was popular with his coaches and at school. Plus he was really smart and hot at the same time. We were talking about today's game. He told me he had a video on my game and asked me if I wanted to see it. I said yes. He took my hand and led me to his room. When we arrived, two of Matt's friends were in the room. Matt introduced me to them and we started to watch the video. His friends left and that's when he put his hands on my shoulder. He ran his hands down further. He unbuttoned my shorts and held my shoulders." I stopped suddenly.  
  
Olivia's POV: Elliot and I were drinking in Ashley's story like kids waiting for their bedtime story. Ashley grew quiet again and started to pick at the string on a blanket.  
  
"Ashley, sweetie, what happened after that? What happened next?" I asked her. Ashley had started to cry and lifted her tear streaked face.  
  
"Matthew Greene r-r-raped me."  
  
Ashley's POV: When I told them, I got sick to my stomach. "Oh god." I ran to the powder room and was sick for 10 minutes. I rose to my feet and washed my face then hobbled back to the living room. The detectives were still sitting there. I managed to sit back down on the sofa.  
  
"Are you all right, Ashley?" Olivia asked me. I managed to nod. "I think so."  
  
"When did you find out you were pregnant?" Detective Stabler asked me.  
  
"A week after I came home."  
  
"When and how did you go into premature labor?" He asked me.  
  
"I was at cheerleading practice and we were practicing stunts. My bases dropped me. That's what the doctor said." I started to fiddle with my fake nails. I could tell that they still wanted more.  
  
"Ashley, sweetie, did Matt call you or talk to you?" Olivia asked me. I swung my legs up onto the couch and found my purse sitting on the couch. I played with the zipper.  
  
"Yeah. He said I was a slut." I let a torrent of tears wash through, and I was sure my makeup was running.  
  
"Ashley, you're going to need to come with us." Detective Stabler said. The detectives helped me to my feet and into the car.  
  
It had started to rain. "Can we turn off the lights? I don't want to be there any sooner then possible." I whispered to them. 


End file.
